The South Wing Chapel was the only part of St. Jude's that didn't feel like a
laboratory. It was old, built with heavy stone and stained glass that filtered
the red emergency lights into a soft, ghostly purple.
Jax sat on a wooden pew, staring at his hands. He was silent, following
Sloane's every movement with the eyes of a stray dog. He didn't know who
she was, but he seemed to intuitively know that she was his "home."
"It's clear,
" Sloane whispered, sliding the heavy iron bolt across the chapel
doors. She leaned her forehead against the wood, her shoulders shaking for
just a second before she pulled herself together. "The mist hasn't reached this
high yet. The stone is too thick."
I dropped my bag on the floor. My journals felt like lead. "We can stay here for
a few hours. We need to eat. We need to think."
31.
Julian didn't sit down. He walked toward the altar, his eyes fixed on the
massive pipe organ.
"Music,
" he murmured. "Vibrations. Mathematical frequencies."
"Julian, sit down,
" I said softly, walking over to him. "You've been standing
for three hours."
He turned to me, and the red light caught the ink on his palm. TRUST CALLIE. He
looked at the words, then at me. "I remember the concept of a 'Safe Zone,
'
Callie. It's a place where the variables are controlled. But in this school, Archer
is the only one with the remote."
"Then we make our own variables,
" I said, pulling a crumpled bag of crackers
from my bag. "Sit. Eat. That's an order from your 'Anchor'."
32.
For the first time since the lockdown started, we all sat together in a circle
on the cold stone floor.
Sloane opened a bottle of water and held it to Jax's lips. He drank obediently.
It was heartbreaking to see the fierce, confident Sloane acting like a nurse to
the boy who used to protect her from everything.
"He used to hate water,
" Sloane said suddenly, a small, sad smile touching her
lips. "He only drank energy drinks. Said water was for 'people who didn't want
to win.'"
Jax tilted his head. "Did I win?"
Sloane's smile faded. She reached out and ruffled his messy hair. "The most
important game of your life, Jax. You won."
33.
The "Chemistry" of the group started to shift. We weren't just the Genius, the
Writer, the Athlete, and the Socialite anymore. We were a unit.
"Why did you do it, Sloane?" I asked. "Why did you stay with him? You could
have made it to the rooftop alone. You're fast enough."
Sloane looked at me, her eyes hard. "Because at St. Jude's, they teach us that
people are just numbers. GPA. Social rank. Bank balance. But Jax... Jax was the
only one who didn't care about my rank. He just cared if I was okay. You don't
delete a person like that. Not if I'm still breathing."
Julian looked at Sloane, then at me. "Loyalty,
" he said, as if discovering a new
element. "It's an irrational variable. It doesn't follow the laws of selfpreservation."
34.
"Love is always irrational, Julian,
" I said.
Julian reached out and touched my journal. "Tell me something. Before the
Archive was emptied. Did I ever... did I ever look at you?"
I felt my face heat up. "Sometimes. Usually when you were frustrated with a
physics problem. You'd look toward the window, and your eyes would pass
over me. I always wondered if you were seeing me, or just the reflection of
the clouds."
"I see you now,
" Julian whispered. He leaned in, his forehead resting against
mine. "I don't remember the clouds. But I see the way your eyes change color
when you're worried. I've archived that. Archer can't have it."
35.
Creeeeak.
A floorboard groaned in the balcony above us.
In a heartbeat, the "Chemistry" of the team clicked into action. Without a word,
Sloane grabbed Jax's hand and pulled him behind a stone pillar. Julian stepped
in front of me, his body tensed, his hand reaching for a heavy brass candle
holder.
"Who's there?" Jax asked—not with his memory, but with a sudden, sharp
instinct. Even without his mind, his body remembered how to be a "Shield."
A shadow moved near the organ pipes.
"Don't shoot,
" a voice whispered.
A small, terrified girl crawled out. It was Sia, the tech-whiz rival. Her expensive
uniform was covered in dust, and her tablet—the one she usually treated like a
holy relic—was cracked in half.
36.
"Sia?" Sloane stepped out, her guard still up. "Where's your 'perfect' circle of
friends?"
Sia slumped against the railing, her eyes red from crying. "They're gone. They
all went to the 'Reformatting' center in the gym. They thought Archer was
helping them. They... they walked in like sheep, Sloane. And they came out
with those blue eyes."
She looked down at her broken tablet. "I tried to hack the server to stop the
mist, but Archer found me. He locked my ID. I'm a ghost in the system now. If
I step outside this chapel, the 'Assigned' will find me in seconds."
Sia looked at our group—at Callie with her ink, Julian with his smudged hand,
and the empty-eyed Jax. "You're the only ones left who are 'Real'."
37.
"We're going to the South Wing,
" I told her. "We're going to find the physical
Archive and stop Archer."
Sia shook her head, terrified. "You can't. He's already started the 'Master
Delete.' He's not just erasing the students anymore. He's erasing the school's
history. He's going to make it look like St. Jude's never existed. We'll all
just... vanish."
"Then we vanish fighting,
" Jax said.
We all looked at him. His voice sounded different—deeper, more certain. He
still didn't have his memories, but he had found his purpose again. He gripped
the back of the wooden pew until the wood groaned. "I don't know who I am.
but I know who he is. He's the one who took the light out of your eyes." He
looked at Sloane. "And I don't like it."
38.
The chemistry was complete.
Callie was the Memory.
Julian was the Logic.
Sloane was the Will.
Jax was the Strength.
Sia was the Key.
"I know how to get into the Archive without Archer seeing us,
" Sia whispered,
pulling a small, handheld drive from her pocket. "It's a hardware bypass. But
someone has to manually plug it into the core."
"I'll do it,
" Julian said.
I grabbed his arm. "Julian, the core is where the Erasure is strongest. If you
go in there, you might not come out with anything left."
Julian looked at the ink on his hand: I LOVE YOU. "Then I'll just have to trust
that you'll be there to tell me who I am when I wake up,
" he said.
39.
The countdown on the chapel's digital clock (the only one still working)
flickered.
06:12... 06:11... 06:10...
Six hours left until the Master Delete.
We stood up together. Sloane and Jax in front, Callie and Julian in the middle,
and Sia trailing behind, clutching her broken tech. We walked toward the
chapel doors, leaving the "Safe Zone" behind.
Outside, the hallways were filled with the sound of a thousand "Assigned"
footsteps. The hunt was on. But for the first time, we weren't just running.
We were a team.
"One rule,
" I said, looking at all of them. "No matter what happens in the
South Wing... nobody gets left behind."
Julian squeezed my hand. "Archive that,
" he whispered.
40.